For those who have yet to experience the magical campus makeover that is the Trinity Arts Festival (TAF), this week is your chance to explore the offerings of Trinity’s most eclectic event of the year.
A longstanding landmark of the Trinity calendar, TAF makes its highly anticipated return next week, February 14th to 18th. With live music, murder mysteries, poets, neon lights, lots of flowers and plenty more, the festival is a self-proclaimed “celebration of all forms of art” across Trinity.
As the TAF committee finish their final preparations before the launch on Monday, The University Times caught up with festival director Seirce Mhac Chongail and night events co-ordinator Greg Tisdall to get an insight into the people working behind the scenes and what the festival represents to them.
Mhac Chongail, a final-year English student, makes it clear that TAF is an atypical organisation. “It’s a really small society”, they explain. “That means it can’t rest on its laurels – you have to make things happen”. Implying a lengthy process, Mhac Chongail admits that “we’ve been planning since before Christmas”.
Due to the inconsistency of the pandemic the form of this year’s festival experienced a number of changes as varying regulations dictated what the committee could feasibly achieve. “We had to be quick”, says Tisdall. He points to the lack of nightclubs and venues in Dublin as a challenging aspect of his role, but restrictions were thankfully lifted in time for the festival to continue unhindered.
As the committee itself is relatively small, TAF’s success is dependent on the help of an ensemble of volunteers who assist in the running of events. “A lot of the reach of the festival is in the people power of the volunteers”, says Mhac Chongail, “we can’t do it without them.” Students sign up online and are invited to the volunteer night, where tote bags are decorated and instructions for the week ahead are imparted.
Mhac Chongail explains the gravity of the project. There will be an event almost every hour from 10am to 6pm each day, with one large event at an external location every night. Due to the intensity of the timetable, the role of events co-ordinator is split between two people whose roles are to organise day and night events respectively. Tisdall, in charge of the latter, is keen to show newer students the full extent of extra-curricular college life.
The ephemeral nature of the festival is reflected in its organisers. Mhac Chongail and Tisdall both recount similar experiences with the society before they joined. Mhac Chongail was initially wooed by the “magical” takeover of the Graduates Memorial Building (GMB) and simply had to volunteer in 2019, earning the TAF’s “Best Fresher” award before eventually running for the role of director.
Tisdall, a musician, played a set at an event in his second year of college and remembers being “blown away by the ethereal and dreamy decor”. His experience in organising gigs prompted a friend to encourage him to run for night events officer. That’s not to say the society is totally insular, in fact, both Mhac Chongail and Tisdall say how the committee changes almost entirely from year to year, which contributes to the allure of the festival and eliminates repetition. “It’s very intersectional”, says Tisdall “It’s not a cliquey thing”.
However, there are some TAF traditions that have survived these turnovers, notably the Pink Party, which has remained a cornerstone of the week. “There’s just something about going into a room where everything is pink that changes your mood instantly”, says Mhac Chongail. “It’s also nice to have a staple of TAF that is a celebration of women and feminist art”, they add. There are also “guerrilla gigs”, – live music performances at various campus locations..
It seems that part of what makes TAF so accessible is how many events are simple yet very much enjoyable. “For example, one of our workshops is watercolour painting”, said Mhac Chongail. “Yet, when do you actually just sit down and do that?”
TAF symbolises more than just a bit of fun for the artistically inclined: it is a colourful manifestation of a student body’s creative potential. According to Mhac Chongail, the committee acts primarily as a liaison between creatives and the public. “At our core we are facilitators; people make their art, and we give them a time and a place to show it.”
“We work exclusively in collabs”, they explain. Students are encouraged to submit their art online and the committee combines their contributions with events co-hosted by other societies. “We definitely put an emphasis on people coming to us, especially from within the college”, says Tisdall. DU Players are consistent TAF collaborators, for example, with their annual murder mystery and a series of ‘Pop-Up Plays’, a new addition to festival.
While the day events are focused on student contributions, Tisdall has collaborated with up-and-coming Irish artists to create a series of live performances dotted in venues across the city at night. This year is especially focused on young Irish acts. “I want to highlight people that I know are going to be big”, says Tisdall. “It’s great to see people from Dublin doing their thing and being themselves.”
One such emerging talent is alternative R&B artist Monjola, one of RTÉ 2FM’s Rising Stars of 2021, who will be performing on Friday. The list of venues that will be used include the Fumbally Stables, Bello Bar and the Soundhouse, established residents of the Dublin scene. Tisdall himself, alongside artists Last Apollo and Rhizome Collective, will be performing at Monday’s opening party, and of course, the list of talent to be featured goes on and on.
TAF is a rare opportunity to provide this raw talent to an audience for free. When asked whether organising a festival of this kind is an important step towards reaffirming the importance of young artists in Ireland, Mhac Chongail was reticent to agree. They point to a “huge, systemic, fundamental problem” that has damaged cultural life in Ireland, but are thankful for the opportunity to receive enough funding to be able make this contribution.
“People are gagging to perform”, they explained, pointing to the numerous artists who have emerged from the lockdowns, and who are searching for places to perform for the first time. “It’s difficult for artists to share their work with people in a physical space. Being in a room with people and getting their instant bodily feedback, especially in terms of music, is great.”
The events, starting tomorrow, feel organic and genuine, perhaps because they solely consist of student input from start to finish. The festival is primarily about students enjoying themselves and making the most of their revamped, and now, tangible mostly off-line campus. Mhac Chongail calls it “a heightened, creative and novel way of accessing art”.
So, if you’re an aesthete, an art connoisseur or if you’re just looking for something new and exciting, keep your eyes peeled for these events that will test the boundaries of what it means to be a artist, a student and a young person today.
